What is the best transfer printer for an embroidery shop?

So let’s say you have an embroidery business, and you’re trying to expand. You may have considered outsourcing the purchase of transfers or t-shirt prints. However, you realize that isn’t a long-term solution.

Other issues include:

What type of transfer printing is best for your customers?

Do you go with white toner transfers OR should you stick to inkjet transfers?

What about a vinyl cutting system?

Determining where to invest your profits can be a stressful decision.

The DigitalHeat FX System has become the solutions for many embroidery ships, let examine why.

Go From Outsourcing Transfers to Doing Them In-House

Sourcing transfers from online stores or another local print shop is a very viable way of doing business. However, small business owners know that profits are the key to growth. If you want to bring on new technology, upgrade your store, hire staff, etc … you need to have money in the bank.

Outsourced transfers are approximately $5-15 (depending on the size of the sheet). The cost to produce a sheet of transfers is closer to $3-6. So, as an embroidery shop, making up your own transfers cuts your production costs in half, and doubles profits.

Also if you noticed, your shop can now become a source for wholesale transfers too. Pre-printed transfers are big business.

Liquid Inks are More Difficult To Use Than Toner

Dealing with an inkjet printer comes with frustrations. There are 3 frustrations most commonly mentioned: cost, speed, reliability.

Let’s break down why getting a toner system from DigitalHeat FX is superior to liquid ink printers.

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Cost

Liquid ink is significantly more expensive than toner printing. The amount of ink needed to create a transfer is much more than toner, the cost to create cartridges (that don’t even hold that much ink) is expensive, the storage and life of a cartridge are much less than toners.

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Speed

Laying ink via a print head is a slow process. It involves the print head moving back and forth and applying layers of ink one line at a time. An ink transfer can take 1-5 minutes to create for a single page. If you need to create 30 transfers, it could take hours just in printing alone.

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Reliability

If you have owned an inkjet printer in the past, you know all the things that happen. The print head dries out; you get missing colors, lines in your prints, expensive refills, etc. Plus if you don’t maintain your printer, you could end up with costly repairs.

NOTE: Liquid Inks generally limit you to NOT having the ability to print white, see why that is incredibly important below.

The reason you see Toner Printers in professional offices all over the world is because they are much cheaper to operate, much faster and incredibly reliable. The same is true with transfer printing.

White Toner Unlocks a Whole New World

In the world of printing custom apparel, there is a huge need for white.

Dark colored garments represent well over half the apparel created, and white is a must to create vibrant colors. When you print with a White Toner Printer like the DFX 8432 or the DFX i550, you can put down a layer of white in a single pass. In other words, your graphics will automatically get a white background when needed.

White toner lets colors like yellow or light blue pop on a black t-shirt. Your printer will also print white alone when needed; now you can create dark colored garments with solid white. All of this without any additional work, printing white is just as easy as any other color.

The DFX 8432 and DFX i550 both work using White Toner and other colors to create a huge spectrum of colors on one print.

Versatility is the Key to a Growing Business

Embroidery can be a very profitable business and occupies a very esteemed place in the decorated apparel world. Learning to be a master embroiderer takes time and practice. However, it doesn’t offer the versatility needed to make your business grow as fast.

A white toner transfer system by DigitalHeat FX will take give your business a huge leap in versatility.

You can now decorate tons of items, even beyond apparel. These promotional or gift items often go perfectly alongside an embroidered good. These include:

Wood

Metal

Porcelain

Canvas

& other hard substrates that can handle the heat

The Power to Take On Extra Business, Don’t Turn it Away

Here’s an example of what can happen with an embroidery business.

A customer wants to decorate a shirt or a cap with a complex or large design. You realize this is a 15,000 stitch design with many color changes. The digitizing is complex, and the sew out is nearly 20 minutes.

The cost of the digitizing and embroidery is beyond what your customer can afford. So where do you go next?

You can now offer them a much faster solution that doesn’t require digitizing or a long production time. This same logo may be produced on a white toner printer in minutes.

Production goes from 20 minutes a garment down to 3 minutes. This means you can deliver to your customer a product that looks great, at a price they can afford. Everyone wins!

As things go in life, larger investment come with a larger reward. The DFX 8432 has been our #1 selling model and its proven time and time again to be an amazing workhorse for a business that is looking to grow and make money.

But don’t discount the power behind the i550! Sometimes, free space and cash flow dictate our business decisions.

Either way, the addition of a DigitalHeat FX System is going to take your embroidery business to new heights and give you more opportunities than you ever had before!

Get Started Today with Digital HeatFX!

For more information about starting your custom apparel business using Digital HeatFX call 855-348-4839 to speak with a product specialist today, chat below or the contact us button below.